Georgia football, minus Bear Alexander, lacks D-line depth. Mentor sheds light on departure
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart has seen enough this preseason to consider his team’s depth on the defensive line down from where it’s been in recent seasons.
The Bulldogs certainly could use Bear Alexander, but the defensive tackle left the program before the end of spring practices and surfaced at Southern Cal.
The 6-foot-3, 300-pound Alexander looked to be a key piece going forward on the Bulldogs’ defensive front after his freshman season in 2022. He played in 12 games and had 13 quarterback hurries and two sacks including one in the national championship trouncing of TCU.
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Georgia coaches even assured Alexander’s mentor from his home state of Texas, Tony Jones, that he would have a major role this season, according to a story this weekend in the Los Angeles Times, but he hadn’t locked down a starting job this spring, much to the chagrin of Jones.
“If I can’t trust you with what you say, I’m out,” Jones told the Times. “That’s what it got to (at Georgia).”
Smart said after Alexander’s departure: “It's a new climate we're in. The window will open and all across the country there will be guys going in and looking for greener pastures.”
Alexander considers Jones like a father. His biological father, Keith Alexander, was sentenced to 30 years on felony drug charges when he was just a few months old and was released early in 2019.
Georgia lost top 10 NFL draft pick Jalen Carter from its defensive line and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins has battled a foot injury this month. It has a budding star in defensive end Mykel Williams.
"We don't have the depth we probably have had,” Smart said. “Maybe that's a luxury compared to other people, I don't know. I think we've got to get deeper at the position. The only way to get deeper at the position, you can't get anybody at this point. There isn't anybody coming out for waivers. So what you're trying to do is, you're trying to grow the younger players and get your older players to play at a higher level.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Why Bear Alexander left Georgia football, according to his mentor
